From the Land over the Rainbow Bridge

This is Aria's birthday fairy - her old friend from the land over the rainbow bridge before she came to visit Mama and Dadda. She is waiting to be named by the birthday girl.

 Those dread locks took quite a while... and so did the hands! I underestimated just how much of an undertaking this project was!

She is FAR bigger than anything I've attempted before!

 

 I couldn't get a really accurate representation of the colours today. It was overcast and raining the wholetime :( - I'll have another go on a dryer day!

 

 Her legs are moveable and can be positioned in a few different poses and I've aimed for a tie dyed look with her clothes (I'm not sure if you can tell in these photos). I hope the birthday girl enjoys meeting her friend on her big day. I'm sure there will be lots of cuddles and kisses:)

With love and light,

xxx

{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. 


Inspired by SouleMama

 I am grateful for this moment

With love and light for your weekend,

xxx

WIP wednesday

This weekAria and I have been working on a couple of different dying projects. We are doing some Batik inspired fabric squares which I will later sew up into a quilt for her bed. I'm not much a fan of doonas these days and am finding it difficult to track down some affordable 100% natural fibre bedding - so I thought, why not make our own! I'm thinking of making it a nice thick blanket with wool and bamboo innards to keep her nice and warm but also remaining breatheable for summer. The design will probably end up being something similar to our spring blanket that I made last year.

To make the Batik effect we used some water based glue - much like pva glue - and then put it in the oven for a quick dry so it wouldn't seep into the fabric. Aria then painted over it with some watered down acrylic paint. After the paint dried I washed it in hot water in order to get all the glue off. I'm loving the result!

Now that our test patches have worked out fine we'll be going ahead with a whole heap more. I love the dreamy effect of it all - perfect for bed time! I will intersperse some other pale blue patches in between the painted ones and the backing will be pale blue too. I'm hoping to have it finished for her birthday:)

We are just about to tie dye some thin cotton fabric with rainbow colours. This will go with her rainbow bridge birthday story (of which I have yet to find a copy! If anyone can summarise the story that would be great. I kind of get the gyst, but would love to hear the real thing!). The fabric will also make a great accompaniment to her yet to be made play stands (for which I have found this great tutorial).

I did have lots more to write about, but Aria has just woken...

Peace

xxx

Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice has such a warm and glowing feel to it! I think this will be something I'll look forward to a great deal each year. This year I didn't plan very much in the way of festivities as I have had another recent flare up of glandular fever. Even so, we had a lovely, special, enchanting time:)

The night before solstice, Aria and Dadda celebrated with the local Steiner crowd at a winter festival. During the week we got together with some of the other Mums and Johanna, our playgroup leader, to make some laterns which were to be used on this night. During the lantern-lit celebrations (no overhead lights) a special story, songs and supper were shared before a muddy lantern walk. When Aria got home she came bounding up to me saying "fun, fun!"

Yesterday, to celebrate the coming of Father Sun - Aria and I began the day with some powerful fresh smoothies followed by some Yoga (we happened to do lots of salutes to the sun, which was quite appropriate!).

Then we rolled up our sleeves and pants and went for a beautiful sunny walk to the beach! How amazing to have full sunny blue skies in Melbourne during Winter! It was glorious to walk through the water (although it nearly froze our toes off) while replenishing our vitamin D stores:)

Later on that day it got very dark very early, so we lit many many candles and put them all around the house. We worked and ate by candlelight for the rest of the day while singing "Fairies of the Candle Flame" which Aria now sings along to.

What a beautifully energetic but restful and peaceful day we had (despite Aria's four teeth popping through!) I hope you had a wonderful celebration wherever you are in the world :)


With love and light,
xxx

A morning in the garden

I'd been noticing of late that some areas of our garden had very suddenly become overgrown with weeds, so today Aria and I got busy outside with our little forks and spades. She absolutely loved it! What a great opportunity for her to express some of that boundless energy! Right now it's like I've got a toddler on speed, so a morning in the garden was absolutely perfect:) 

As is the done thing lately, she was jibber jabbering away: huge monologues interspersed with great big imitative belly laughs (think Santa). I looked up at one stage to discover that she was talking to a chubby green caterpillar about how Dadda went in the brrrm brrm to work and then she started singing part of our "fairies of the candle flame" song to a scurrying insect.

Singing the day away

A balancing act

This girl is rarely seen outside without a basket of some sort!

 Tree hugger!

Aria spent quite a bit of time talking to something up the tree. I couldn't figure out what for the life of me - maybe it's her friend "fairy woof woof" Aren't some moments just delightful?

I think we'll be having many many more mornings in the garden. We are constantly going for nature walks and spend a lot of time outdoors, but how is it that I missed what is in our very own back yard?

With love and light

Broken umbrellas and worrying less.

Today Aria and I went for a walk along the beach in the pouring rain - and I do mean pouring. The kind that is coming at you from multiple directions - the kind that needs more armour that just one umbrella and a raincoat. Maybe a portable tin shed would be getting close... I truly felt that Aria and I needed to get outside today - I've been feeling my vitamin D stores fading along with the sun, and the muscles in my cramping legs were craving the sea water, so I just thought - so what if it's storming outside. Lets go Aria!

After becoming predictably saturated and having to repeatedly manouvre an umbrella that was intent on remaining inside out, I became rather discouraged. Visions of indoor warmth crept into my icicled brain and my frozen legs and feet ached. I could feel the arthritic pain of fibromyalgia clawing at my joints and began to feel fearful that I had triggered off a painful episode. Silly me!

Then began the self bashing... "I shouldn't have come out here," "Why do I always make life hard for myself?" "This was a ridiculous, stupid idea", "Aria's probably hating this", "I should've known we'd get saturated", "Why did I do this?"... you get the picture. We can be pretty harsh with ourselves sometimes and I'm a master of this when I let myself go unconsciously.

After a fair amount of 'Melissa Bashing', a small voice on my back piped up - just audible over the wind and heavy rain.

"Mama wet... Ah well, no worries.... wub oo" (love you). 

In one instant the beauty that surrounded me became obvious. Coming from Aria's mouth - the innocence and purity brought a tear to my eye! I got to thinking - Some things just aren't that complicated. It's simple... Life doesn't need to be so serious! The ability of the young child to go with the flow and move through life living in the now is just magical.

So now my day has not become about aching legs, drenched clothes, pain, fatigue and broken umbrellas. Today is about letting things go, worrying less and loving more.

 

With love and light

xxx

Goodbye Autumn...

Lady Winter is unfolding

Curling slowly within

S

Soothingly still and silent reflection

Autumn lingers...

as we say goodbye

New rhythm settles into our days

A time to nurture, refocus and become inspired...

 

We're beginning to enjoy WINTER!

Peace

xxx

She's Finished!

Just thought I'd share some pics of the completed little Aria that I've been working on for her 2nd birthday...

 For Aria this will just be a doll that Mama made, of course she's not going to know it looks like her - but it was great fun for me to work on getting a likeness happening! I actually didn't start with this photo in mind, but after I started making her, I realised where I must have been getting my inspiration.

After I decided that this doll would resemble Aria, I wanted to really capture her determination, enthusaism, and how alive she becomes when outdoors on our nature walks.

I included her amber necklace, the flower embelishment on her pants and a tie around her kimono top (losely based on a top I knitted for her a while ago that she always wears).

Now I'm working on a fairy which is larger and even more of a task than this doll. Am getting there slowly. This is sooooo addictive!

WIP wednesday and Winter table

Recently I've been working hard on a little doll for Aria's 2nd birthday. Feeling inspired by some of our recent photos, I'm trying to make it in her likeness.

Trying to form a solid figure as a foundation before creating some clothes.

I still have lots of tweaking and details to add, but here's how she looks so far:)

Nice butt!

And a view from the side... I'd like to make her boots less sock-like and add a trim to her hat and pants. She also wears an amber necklace which I may try and include.

One of the photos of my little elfin girl that inspired this creation.

************

We are welcoming the cool rain and cosiness of winter over here. This is the beginning of our winter nature table. I've really struggled for inspiration this season! This is our first winter table, so I'm sure as the days roll on I'll adapt more to this new season. I miss autumn right now and winter has not yet arrived in my soul! Ah well (as Aria would say - like the other day when I walked in and she'd thrown her vegies all over the room... "Ah well... no worries" lol)

With love and light

xxx

Fairy Tale Gals

I've just finished these little girls who look like they come straight out of a fairy tale... The only trouble is, I can't think of which one!

I have tentaltively named them 'Meadow' and 'Sky'  

 Complete with apron - ready for some adventures or to help her Mama with the baking.

It's getting a bit chilly outside so this wee lass dons her olive green scarf for her trip to the Sunday markets

With a lot of encouragement from friends and family, I've decided to create an on line shop (with the help of my very graphic-design-talented man). I'm really excited about this venture which will allow me to focus my new addiction into something productive. Wish me luck!

With Love, Light and Peace 

xxx

This Moment

I am grateful for this moment...

{This Moment} A friday ritual (inspired by soulemama). a single photo capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. a moment to pause, savour and remember.

Felt alive giveaway :)

For anyone wanting to learn the addictive art of needle felting, Kay Petal's 'FELT ALIVE' website is where it's at. Check out this post for her fantastic dvd give away and for the link to her new super duper flash website! I absolutely love her fun and 'alive' approach to this awesome art - so inspiring:)